For a unique experience, you could try the Hôtel de Glace for a night. 15 min drive from downtown.

www.hoteldeglace-canada.com/…

I agree with tdsuperstar and Jean-Simon C Chateau Frontenac is the place to stay if money is no object but spending a night at the Ice Hotel would be a great experience. Check and bookmark the following link as activities will be added in the upcoming weeks.

http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/en/

I would also suggest : Auberge St-Antoine, Le Dominion, Hotel 71, Auberge Place d'Arnes

Depending if you like bigger or small charming hotels!

Thank you for the hotel recommendations. They all look so charming! A friend of ours mentioned the Ice Hotel so I guess it's called the Hotel de Glace. I would not be too sure if I can survive a night there (even with the furnace heaters and all). One little tidbit I forgot to mention is that we are from Florida! 60 deg F is already cold for me. But we will definitely check it out even for just a day or a couple of drinks.

What other things would you recommend for us to do and check out? Any local restaurants?

As always, your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

PS: Duhh, I didnt realize that my location would be posted along with my trip advisor name. So thats Florida x 2 for you! And yes, i do get cold easily. ;o)

You can go and tour the ice hotel. We went just before dusk, so saw the place in the daylight and then we had drinks in the ice bar and after saw the place lit up at night. It was beautiful, the sculpted snow and ice is spectacular. I had no interest in sleeping there, but we all loved the self guided tour.

Places I like to eat, Toast, L'echaude, Le Hobbit, Cafe du Monde for dinner.

Pub ste Alexandre for good beer and pub food.

Cochon D'ingue for great breakfast and lunch. Aux Anciens Canadien for there daily lunch menu, served until 5:45pm, this is solid Quebec cuisine served in a quaint building.

Splurge meal would be the Sunday brunch at the Le Champlain in the Chateau Frontenac. I also love cocktails in their bar St Laurent, they make a great Singapore sling.

A Singapore Sling bogwoppit!!! God I haven't had one of those in years, and I used to have alot of those!! I love the St. Laurant's martini's, but now i'll have to try a Singapore Sling when we return in late February.

I think in winter the Frontenac is ideal. While we loved the Place d'Armes, and will be returning, the Frontenac is big, has a little, though pricey shopping inside, and it is easy to find a cab out front, or hit the funicular for a trip down to Lower Town.

And I agree with all of bogwoppit's restaurant recommendations, and will add the small Le Lapin Saute in Lower Town as well which specializes in duck and rabbitt dishes. I say small because during winter there is of course no outdoor sitting and it is a tiny place to begin with but well worth it.

Oh, and L'Oncle Antoine's, also in Lower Town, is a also very good for beer and a few pub type dishes.

JDP

The temperature inside the Ice hotel varies between -3C and -5C even if it's -30 outside, so not too bad! But just a tour of the hotel and a drink at the ice bar is still worth it. You could also rent ice skates at the Place D'Youville rink, take the ferry between Lévis and Québec which offers a nice point of view on the city

I would do like Bogwoppit and go to the Hotel de Glace / Ice Hotel for a visit and drink but never spend a night there. As you can guess from Jean Simon C the temperatures are bearable in the rooms but it is the humidity that will kill you. Personally I would never try it and I am one of those Northerners that can go to the beach in FLA at 65 F and even have a dip in the ocean!

Cuturally you shoud get a combo ticket for the Musée de la Civilisation, Centre d'Interprétation de la Place Royale and Musée de l'Amérique Française. Try to get the locations on a map and then you can just walk in while touring the town and feeling some need to warm up a bit. Same for Musée des Beaux-Arts that is on the Plains of Abraham, hence close to Carnival Central but usually quiet and the restaurant and café are great options for lunch out of the Carnival crowd. Another marvelous lunch could be had at Le Parlementaire, the restaurant of our Assemblée Nationale (parliament), the sole of it's kind on the continent open to all wth reservations and proper IDs. Note that Le Parlementaire is also open for breakfast but usually it s opened only during week-days but it seems that they might throw a couple of brunches on week-ends during Carnival.

Also a very nice thing to do around sunset is to go to the rotatng restaurant on top of Loews Hotel (next door to the Plains) and have a nice drink at the bar while watching the city getting all illuminated. You could probably get some kind of hot toddies if that fits you.